


I Will Work This Flame

by Tsume_Yuki



Series: Female Harry x Marvel Soulmark Stories [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Dimension Travel, F/M, Female Harry Potter, M/M, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 00:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4501614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsume_Yuki/pseuds/Tsume_Yuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a child, Steve had always taken comfort in his soulmarks.<br/>Because really, '<i>You're a little scrawny to be picking fights like that,'</i> and <i>'It's easy, just punch, give them the ol' one two, right?'</i> seemed like his kind of people.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bucky, on the other hand, had always known his soulmates were going to be a handful.<br/>How could he not, when he was stuck with <i>'I had him on the ropes'</i> and <i>'No, I attract trouble Mr Barnes,'</i> sprawled across him?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hariel Potter has never quite known what to think when it came to her own soulmarks, considering the vast difference between <i>'Do you know how to box properly Ma'am?'</i> and <i>'You just attract killers to you, don't ya' doll?' </i><br/>She should have expected something as ridiculous as them living in an alternate dimension.<br/>One she just so happens to accidentally trip into.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Even when it seemed everything was going wrong, Steve'd had Bucky.

Ever since he was seven, back when he'd been trying -and failing- to teach Joe Lorrie a lesson about picking on girls, Bucky had been there to pull him out. His soulmate.

He could remember sitting on Bucky's living room floor as Bucky's Ma patched him up, discussing their third soulmate. They were both certain she was female, both had that gut feeling. Along with a little wrenching thing that suggested they wouldn't be meeting her as soon as they'd met each other.

Steve had always been pleased with what his soulmarks had said, and almost laughed himself into an asthma attack when he saw her words on Bucky.

She was going to be trouble, that much was obvious.

Clearly the two of them needed Bucky to keep them on the straight and narrow, because looking at their words on each other, it was obvious he was the only one with any form of sense.

 

* * *

 

 

He knew as soon as he was done pulling the shrimp out of his fight. Knew that he was going to be the sensible one in this relationship.

How could he not be, when this scrawny punk was throwing himself into a fight he clearly couldn't win?

And he'd always had a damn good feeling that soulmate number two was going to be just as much trouble, if not more.

James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes knew with a deep sated certainty that his soul mates were going to be trouble when they all came together.

 

And he was going to enjoy every minute of it.

 

* * *

 

 

Hariel Lilith Potter had always adored her words.

She'd decided from a young age she wouldn't be learning to box, that she'd have her soulmate teach her instead. It was something they could bond over.

The second words were a bit worrying; was she going to meet her soulmate after another assassination attempt? From Voldemort, or another?

Harry didn't know.

What she did know was that her soulmate was going to call her ' _doll_ ', so surely he'd think her pretty, would like the way she looked.

Aunt Petunia always said her hair was too red, the colour of the wine she liked to drink. Her eyes were too bright, weren't normal. Vivid green, like someone had poured bright paint into her irises and it's never left.

And let's not forget the collection of freckles that covered her eyelids and flicked out with the curve of her eyebrow, like natural warpaint.

She was funny to look at, but her soulmate clearly liked it.

 

And that was all that mattered right now.


	2. Steve

 

 

_Steve_

 

 

He remembered the time just before Bucky's numbers were called, the fortnight after war was declared.

Back when Steve had been insistent that he would be meeting their soulmate before he was shipped out for war. Bucky had warned him, warned that you couldn't rush these things and that she'd turn up when she was good and ready.

It didn't stop his soulmate from joining him in Goldie's Boxing Gym, where they spent the next two weeks training Steve's mettle -not that he'd been lacking in that area really- along with his weak wrists -which needed as much help as he could get-.

They both knew that just because they were spending time in a boxing ring, it didn't mean that their second soulmate would show her face. And they were pretty damn certain it was a her.

But that didn't stop them both from snapping to attention whenever someone walked into the building.

 

It was never her, but they still looked.

 

 

 

Then of course, Bucky's numbers were called. It sat like an elephant in the room, up until Bucky began bragging that he was going to be the one to find her. That she might be English, or maybe even French. Maybe he'd end up getting a cold or something and she'd be there to nurse him back to health.

He'd wiggled his eyebrows at that and Steve had snorted, shaking his head as he did so. He'd denied it, insisting he'd be the one to find her first, at which point, Bucky had extracted a promise that Steve keep visiting the Boxing Gym every so often.

Because if Steve met her first that meant Bucky was without a doubt coming home, because he still needed their other soulmate to say his words. It gave them some form of comfort in all honesty, and Steve had clung to it as Bucky's departure had approached.

And then, Project Rebirth had happened.

 

 

 

He'd daydreamed a bit, that Peggy was their final piece. She was a pretty dame, a genuine firecracker. He could picture her saying the words on his skin. But she didn't, she wasn't her. Not that it kept Steve from admiring her figured, but they were both destined for other people.

He for Bucky and their mysterious third, and Peggy- well, she'd not met him yet, that was the extent of Steve's knowledge.

He'd been irritated that the scientists had made notes of his soul marks, even if he'd taken great pride in announcing one belonged to Bucky. Blushed a little when he admitted he'd not met the other one yet.

Stark had grinned at him, winking theatrically as he'd noted down the two sets of words. Clearly he found them as amusing as Steve had. He'd certainly got a good laugh at Bucky's words declaring him scrawny, when he was anything but now.

Then the USO Tour hit, and there had been no more time to be going to any sort of boxing gym.

 

 

 

Rescuing Bucky put a hold on the second soulmate thing, because he refused to meet her without Bucky as well. He had to focus on keeping the soulmate he already knew about alive, on making sure he was okay and that he'd live to see another day.

Bucky was all that mattered for several weeks, just keeping focused on the man who'd pulled him out of all those fights, and backed him up for twice that amount. It was all going well.

Until the train.

Until the plane and the glowing cube that had a name he couldn't be bothered to remember. Bucky was never going to get to meet their soulmate because he was dead, and now, Steve was going to be to.

He just hoped she'd forgive the both of them.

 

And then everything was cold.

 

* * *

 

 

Steve did not like SHIELD. He liked the idea behind them, but as soon as they'd tried tricking him when he first woke up, his opinions on the way they operated hit rock bottom.

Sure they managed to get him 'back-pay', and set him up with an apartment in Brooklyn, but still.

Running a hand through his hair, the super-soldier continued walking down the street, pulling the hood of his jacket up as an afterthought. The clothing here was significantly more comfortable, better in every sense of the word. And he liked this 'hoodie' that let him walk around with only the front of his face on view.

Even though everyone around him believed he'd died putting that plane down, it didn't change the fact he was so used to them always looking at him, whispering and staring as he went past. It was nice to be a nobody on the street again.

Even if his heart ached with every glimpse of a dark haired male.

Bucky had been dead for seventy years now, but for him, it'd barely been a few weeks.

The loss was still there, and it'd probably never go away.

Even when he'd had nothing, he'd still had Bucky. And now, in this world where he suddenly had money -a lot of it- and food and clothes and anything he could ask for, he'd give it all up to go back and just hold Bucky.

Everything was wrong with the world, and he didn't even want to start putting it right. Not when there was no way for this situation to ever be right.

Ducking into a small gym on the right, one that was SHIELD approved and run by an ex-agent, Steve threw off the fleecy hoodie. It wasn't particularly cold outside, but he still got chills, still felt cold on occasion. Wearing layers helped.

Offering John a nod as he passed the man back, Steve made his way down the stairs into the basement, looking for a locker to drop his things into. The two upper floors of the building held apartments for agents needing to lie low, or so he'd been told. The ground floor and the basement were where the gym stuff actually happened.

 

Snatching up a roll of tape for his hands, Steve took the stairs two at a time, eager to work off the anger that'd been pooling about within his chest.

Bucky had been the one to introduce him to the gym, and while they'd had ulterior motives for their attendance at first, both of them grown quite fond of the simple punching motions.

He'd been visiting the gym religiously, ever since he'd moved into the new Brooklyn, at least once a day. As the place kept odd hours, it wasn't strange for Steve to turn up at one in the morning, fresh from a nightmare that he desperately needed to work through.

Today though, he'd turned up at the acceptable hour of six in the evening. Bless John for not giving him a judging look, like Mrs Goldie would have done, back at Goldie's Boxing Gym.

Walking into the large open room, Steve stopped short upon noticing it was already occupied.

A tiny red-head nymph of a woman stood before a punching bag, looking down at her taped fists, before glancing at the bag and then back again. Her curves were ample, the kind that'd have turned heads back in the 40's, would have certainly turned Bucky's head.

Steve, before Project Rebirth, would have looked at any woman. Quite frankly, with ailments such as his, one couldn't afford to be picky; if it weren't for the soulmate thing, for Project Rebirth, he'd probably have ended up alone.

But it was the thick, wine-coloured curls that had his fingers itching for a pencil. The bounced effortlessly around her shoulders with every move she made, coming to a stop halfway down her back.

Yet, she'd been stood there for a minute already, just looking at the bag and Steve found himself speaking before he'd ever really thought about it.

"Do you know how to box properly, Ma'am?"

She snapped around to look at him, and Steve got his first eyeful of the brilliant green that sat in a surrounding of freckles. Her next words knocked the wind out of him better than any punch could have ever done.

"It's easy, just punch, give them the ol' one two, right?"

She looked so hopeful as she spoke, lips parted even as they curved up in the beginnings of a smile, and Steve remembered that while he and Bucky had known each other since they were seven, the woman in front of him had to have gone at least two decades before he'd turned up here. Thrown seventy years into the future, thrown into a whirlwind of a life with no solid point to stand his ground on, and then suddenly, there she was. The final part of their three.

Only Bucky wasn't here.

"Of course, the first time I go to the gym not looking for you, here you are."

The female's words snapped him from his thoughts and Steve found a small blush dusting across his face. Because this wasn't just any woman, this was his soulmate, and he really didn't want to muck this up.

"I believe it's the same situation for me, Ma'am." Because he'd been to the boxing gyms before, hoping to find her, hoping to be the one to find her first. It seemed he'd got his wish, only, he wouldn't be the one introducing her to Bucky. Because there was no Bucky to be introduced to.

"Hariel Lilith Potter, but my friends just call me Harry." She held out a dainty hand, still wrapped up in tape, and the only sign she was worried at all was the way she worried her lip between her teeth. Bucky used to suck on his lip when he was anxious.

"Steven Grant Rogers, but I'd prefer it if you just went with Steve."

Hariel- No, Harry, grinned.

"Want to trade ridiculous life stories?" Harry asked, looking sceptically over at the punching bag, as if it were the very last thing she'd consider spending her time on.

Feeling a smile tug slightly at the corner of his lips, Steve gave a slow nod. Ignoring the part of him that said Bucky should be here, a part that said he shouldn't deserve another soulmate if he couldn't save the first one.

Another part that said Bucky would have wanted him to talk to her.

"I doubt you could beat the madness that I call my life though."

 

 

 

Turns out, she could.

Sure, seventy years into the future after getting turned from a scrawny punk into a super soldier was odd.

But then again, so was being a witch. A time-travelling -only seven years, nothing like seventy- dimension hopping, witch.

Harry had explained how, since her eighteenth birthday, she'd always made it a habit of going out to boxing gyms, but she'd never run into anyone who'd actually said her words. She'd sheepishly admitted she had wanted o wait to learn to box, hoping her soulmate -him! he was her soulmate!- would be willing to teach her.

Then, she'd decided to go on a holiday during the summer months, only something had gone wrong with the new form of magic transportation, and here she'd popped out. In a new dimension, and had been for the past year, lost with only the trunk full of stuff she'd been planning to take on holiday.

So their stories were both incredibly ridiculous.

"So, there's no magicals in this world?"

Beside him, Harry shook her head, eyeing the hanging bag warily. Staying true to her words, she'd allowed him to pull her over to the bag, working her arms through the correct motions that was punching.

"Nope. Hogwarts is still standing, still magical and with its wards, but it's like, all the additions that happened to it after the twelfth century never happened. Whatever killed off all the magicals, happened somewhere around that time. I suppose the sorting hat will have answers, but I'm scared to find out what they are."

A bead of blood welled up on Harry's bottom lip and Steve watched it grow while  his stomach rolled with morbid curiosity.

"I could come with you to find out, when you're ready. If you want, that is."

Harry's bright eyes locked with his as she turned to look at him, shining slightly with unshed tears.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I do an extra chapter to show the happy ending? Yes or no?


	3. Bucky

 

 

_Bucky_

 

 

He'd known they were gonna be trouble from the start. Even before his words had appeared, he'd known it. They'd bloomed onto his skin just as he turned five, one on his arm, the other rapping around his waist like half a hug.

It was when he was eight that he found Steve, the one who spoke the words that curled around his right forearm. Steve had other words too, other words that worked around his bicep in a helix like pattern, oddly appropriate, considering what they actually said. The handwriting was the same, and soulmates only ever came in twos or threes.

Their final soulmate -Bucky was sure it was a girl, sure she was going to be a girl and the youngest of them- seemed like she was going to have even more guts that Steve. And that was impressive.

He knew his Ma had tutted over their words when she thought they were listening. In her defence though, soulmate number two had said she attracted trouble. It was probably right for his Ma to worry.

But Bucky had a gut feeling. A gut feeling that said she'd be a proper woman, who could handle herself and wouldn't let anyone dictate who or what she could do.

By the time he turned fourteen, he was even certain that the words she'd first speak to him were in fact, a teasing remark. Well, he hoped it was anyway.

Even if she was being serious, what was to say the trouble she was attracting wasn't Steve and Bucky themselves? They did, after all, get into an uncomfortable amount of fights, even if it was Steve's need to stand up for the metaphorical little guy -because Steve was unquestionably the actual little guy- that landed them in hot water all the time.

No, Bucky was pretty certain that when they met her, he'd be the one patching them up from whatever adventures they got up to.

And really, he didn't mind. Life with Steve was fun.

He expected life with two soulmates would be even more fulfilling.

 

 

 

As he went through his life, Bucky Barnes grew to learn a multitude of different things. How interesting science was. How difficult work at the docks and the factory was.

How true panic felt whenever Steve fell ill with something truly life threatening.

It was an experience, and he got to share it all with Steve.

He just wished that soulmate number two would rock up, so he could share it with her as well. He knew she'd balance them out.

When Bucky wanted to dance, she'd be the one to get up and dance with him, because Steve sure as hell insisted it wouldn't be him. And when Steve wanted someone to sit still, maybe read a book as he drew them, then their dame would be the one for the job.

Then, when it came to bedtime cuddles, they'd take turns in the middle, because it wouldn't matter who got to lay where, just that they got to lay there together.

Yes, maybe he was a little excited for when they were a trio. Maybe he'd already asked his Pa and Ma if he could have their wedding rings when he found her; if he was scraping and saving enough money up to get a second male ring, one that'd fit Steve's tiny fingers, then so what? He was optimistic.

Because he knew, somehow, someway, whoever this woman was, this woman that'd speak his words… He knew she'd be perfect. Not the perfect woman.

 

But perfect for them.

 

* * *

 

 

He remembered his face. Remembered those words.

' _Till the end of the line_ '.

He remembered them. He remembered the words the man spoke, wrote on his arm. His flesh one.

The museum had told him some of the things he had missing.

James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes.

Steve Rogers, Captain America, The Target, His Mission..

His Soulmate.

It was confusing. The enemy was what he should hold most dear to him.

Because he wasn't an asset, he was a person who had a soulmate…

Who had soulmates.

He remembered now, other words. The words that wrapped around his waist like a comforting hug. He had another soulmate.

One that he shared with the Captain? With Steve?

Yeah, he remembered that.

HYDRA had been upset she was on the other side of the globe when they sent him after his target; they weren't able to aim him at her as well. Another one of the Avengers.

Hariel Lilith Potter.

She came from another dimension, like the God of Thunder, but not. The girl who could take an attack that would kill anyone else and still get up from it.

HYDRA hadn't even been sure that he'd be able to kill her, and Bucky found himself thankful.

No wait, was he Bucky? He'd thought himself as it just a second ago, but could he really be? He couldn't remember, did he deserve to use that name?

Maybe James.

James didn't have any attachments to it.

Not right now.

 

 

 

He found her when he was least expecting it.

It wouldn't be until a few years later that he'd reflect back on that moment with Steve, and Steve would laugh. Because no matter how much they'd tried to plan, they'd both ended up running into her completely by surprise.

He'd just been tracing a HYDRA cell through Italy when he found them attacking a girl. Red hair, not like Romanoff, but darker. Like fine wine or drying blood.

He'd taken out four by himself, but was surprised to find she'd dealt with the other six, all of them lying unconscious and thoroughly hogtied.

Looking over at the female, James had raised his eyebrows as she crouched besides one, striping him of his wallet.

"You just attract killers to you, don't ya' doll?"

"No, I attract trouble, Mr Barnes." She was looking over her shoulder now and James knew her. Steve's soulmate.

His soulmate.

Hariel.

Harry for short, he remembered that much from her files, from the newspapers and the television.

She was grinning up at him, a pretty elfin thing, with her doe-like eyes and small button nose. Freckles that fell the same way his warpaint once had. She was bright and happy and a memory nagged at him from before. Everything he'd wanted.

And attracting more trouble than he and Steve combined.

Harry had gotten to her feet now, biting her lip and James forcibly released his own from where he'd been sucking the plump flesh.

"Steve's been looking for you," Harry began rocking back on her heels, even as her eyes darted to his hands, her own fingers twitching.

"He has?"

"Oh yeah, all up and down America following leads with his new buddy."

His eyes were drawn to Harry's lips as they twitched upwards again.

"And you're in Italy because?"

"I'm looking into the old magical buildings for all the old magical stuff."

There was a slight pause here, as Harry let her eyes dance away from him, nervous. Why was she so nervous? He was the one that was broken, ruined by what HYDRA had done to him. He didn't deserve Steve, didn't deserve Harry.

But oh, how he wanted them.

"You know, with two sets of hands, I think I could finish up quick enough to get back to Steve by the end of the month."

Viridian eyes sparked at him and James found himself smiling at the little witch.

"Then I guess I'm your assistant for the month, sweetheart. The name's James."

"Harry."

**Author's Note:**

> So, this'll be three parts from here, with a POV from each.


End file.
